Strumpet City

James Plunkett
4.27
1,907 ratings 193 reviews
Set in Dublin during the Lockout of 1913, Strumpet City is a panoramic novel of city life. It embraces a wide range of social milieux, from the miseries of the tenements to the cultivated, bourgeois Bradshaws. It introduces a memorable cast of characters: the main protagonist, Fitz, a model of the hard-working, loyal and abused trade unionist; the isolated, well-meaning and ineffectual Fr O'Connor; the wretched and destitute Rashers Tierney. In the background hovers the enormous shadow of Jim Larkin, Plunkett's real-life hero. Strumpet City's popularity derives from its realism and its naturalistic presentation of traumatic historical events. There are clear heroes and villians. The book is informed by a sense of moral outrage at the treatment of the locked-out trade unionists, the indifference and evasion of the city's clergy and middle class and the squalor and degradation of the tenement slums.
Genres: IrelandFictionHistorical FictionIrish LiteratureHistoricalClassicsBook ClubLiterature20th CenturyLiterary Fiction
560 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
936 (49%)
4 star
650 (34%)
3 star
243 (13%)
2 star
60 (3%)
1 star
18 (1%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by James Plunkett

Lists with this book

Angela’s Ashes
In the Woods
Dubliners
Best Irish Books
686 books603 voters
Circle of Friends
Dubliners
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Elephant of Belfast
The Wonder
Lion of Ireland
Historical Fiction - Ireland
104 books49 voters
Dubliners
Ulysses
The Commitments
Books set in Dublin, Ireland
163 books61 voters